Opposition not supporting any impeachment — Senator Ejercito

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada

MANILA — Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito on Tuesday said the opposition remains consistent with its stand not to support any move to impeach President Benigno S. Aquino III over the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Ejercito, a member of the Senate minority block, made this statement after another impeachment complaint was filed against the President on Tuesday by the Youth ACT NOW and members of the League of Filipino Students at the House of Representatives.

”We have agreed that we will not support an impeachment process even if our titular head will benefit from it,” Ejercito said, referring to Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Ejercito said impeachment would not be good for the country considering the two remaining years of the Aquino administration.

”It (impeachment) is very divisive and it is not good for political stability. It is not good to replace the present administration with only two years left,” the lawmaker said in an interview with Senate media.

Ejercito said they will continue to play their role as constructive opposition.

“We are here to remind the President about the things which we perceived are wrong,” he said.

The senator believes any impeachment would not succeed because the satisfaction rating of President Aquino has yet to reach critical level.

Ejercito also said President Aquino did not benefit from the DAP to which ‘certain acts’ have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

”The Supreme Court did not declare the whole DAP as unconstitutional. Only certain parts of it,” Ejercito said.

The lawmaker also believes the impeachment will not get enough support in the House of Representatives which, he said, is being controlled by the ruling Liberal Party (LP) congressmen.

”Impeachment is more of a political than legal. It’s a numbers game. The LP has the numbers as of now in the House. I believe it will not prosper because the popularity of the President has yet to reach critical level,” Ejercito said.

Ejercito, however, said the Senate minority will continue to monitor the impeachment complaints filed at the House of Representatives.

”We’ll just wait for it. We’ll just act as senator-judges if it reaches the Senate,” Ejercito said.

Ejercito was still a congressman when more than P1.1 billion worth of DAP funds were released to 19 senators in December 2012.